Throughout the last several years, the computing environment has changed dramatically. Early on, users could play games, write papers, generate spreadsheets and graphs, perform calculations, and save any or all parts of their work to the computer's hard drive or on some other type of storage media. As these basic operations were established, graphics and the graphical displays were enhanced to make the computing experience easier and more enjoyable for users. Computer technology continued to advance with the onset of the Internet and computer networking. Users can view, listen to, and/or download music, videos, pictures, and a variety of other documents as well as transact business over the Internet. Among the many conveniences that computer technology currently provides to users, file sharing may be one of the most popular.
Currently, files are organized into folders that are either automatically created by the computing device or manually created and customized by the user. Sharing files between users is typically done by sharing folders. However, this can be problematic because a user usually must share either the entire contents or none of the contents of the folder. In order to make finer-grained sharing decisions, the user is typically forced to make copies of files and organize them into different folders. Having multiple copies of any one file can be cumbersome for the user to manage and cause other problems with redundant document versions. Accidental copying of files between servers may be another common occurrence when sharing and/or working with folders.